Australian Word Map

noun a small fountain which ejects a jet of water into the drinker's mouth. Compare bubbler, drinking fountain, drinking tap, drink tap, fountain, water fountain.

Contributor's comments: I grew up in Melbourne. In the 1950s the drinking fountains at schools were called just "tap", not "bubble tap." When I moved to Sydney in the 1970s, my daughter called them "bubblers."

Contributor's comments: Growing up at Yanakie in South Gippsland and going to Yanakie Primary School in the late 1970's I knew the school drinking fountains as bubble taps.

Contributor's comments: I have lived in most parts of Victoria and they have always been refered to as bubble taps as far as I know

Contributor's comments: Bubble taps were what we used when I was at Primary in Bendigo in the 50's.

bubbler

noun a small fountain which ejects a jet of water into the drinker's mouth: *All you had to do was turn the tap and bend your pursed lips to the bubbler.--CLIVE JAMES, 1980. Compare bubble tap, drinking fountain, drinking tap, drink tap, fountain, water fountain.

Contributor's comments: Most locals seem to use this in Melbourne too, I think. Sometimes I'm not sure how much my words are affected by my Mum's growing up in the Hunter Valley and East Coast Tassie.

Contributor's comments: The word bubbler is occasionally used for drinking fountain in SA.

Contributor's comments: In NW Tasmania in the 1960s, we drank from drinking fountains, and I had never heard of a bubbler until I moved to Canberra in the 1970s.

Contributor's comments: I have lived in Brisbane all my life and ALL the students used "Bubblers" for water fountains. As do my parents, born and raised in Brisbane. It is obviously not just a NSW word as stated by a previous contributor.

Contributor's comments: In Melbourne where I grew up, we always called them a tap, rather than fountain or bubbler. Bubbler is a NSW term.

Contributor's comments: [Brisbane informant] A certain type of water-fountain is called a bubbler... the ones they have in primary schools with the tap part you turn.

Contributor's comments: At school in the 80's it was always a bubbler. It's still called that in Sydney schools.

Contributor's comments: I grew up in Melbourne and was used to the terms "drinking taps" or simply "the taps", particularly in school contexts. (I am a teacher) The term "bubblers" is used in the SE Qld town where I now live and teach.

Contributor's comments: [Riverina informant] Aren't they always called bubblers and should always be used as a necessary architectural addition to any building much beter than the ubiquitous bottle of water?

Contributor's comments: [Brisbane informant] I have lived in central NSW, Sydney (North, East and West), Brisbane (north) and Sunshine Coast and have never heard it called anything else but a 'bubbler' - I always thought that was the correct name for it... not that it was slang.

Contributor's comments: When I was a kid at primary school in the south west Riverina we always called the drinking fountains bubblers. I don't remember this word being used at High School in the mallee though.

Contributor's comments: I am from NSW and grew up using "bubbler". When I arrived in WA and went off to my new school using the same term, the locals thought I must have been using some extremely babyish terminology! They had never heard of the "bubbler" for drinking fountain and thought it was a very silly term!

Contributor's comments: I grew up in Newcastle but now live in Canberra which is a city of very mixed regional origins amongst the population, unlike the Hunter area. The word "bubbler" was always the standard word at school and even as an adult, however from a quick survey of the workplace, I found that the word was only known to Newcastle and Sydney people, with local Canberrans, Victorians and South Australians having not heard of the word before.

Contributor's comments: Growing up in Melbourne in the late 60s, it was a tap, but my children in Darwin now call it a bubbler - much more evocative name.

Contributor's comments: Children in Darwin area primary schools also drink from bubblers.

Contributor's comments: Bubbler was always the term we used. I grew up in the Tamworth region.

Contributor's comments: I first heard the word "bubbler" in the NT in 1984, used by a recently arrived person from Adelaide. I had never heard the word before. In Queensland Primary Schools one drank at "the taps".

Contributor's comments: I went to primary school in Canberra in the 1950s and we ALL called it a bubbler, so it's been around there a long time.

Contributor's comments: I grew up in Far Western NSW in a border town near both the VIC/SA borders, and we always said 'bubbler' for drinking taps. At high school in Northern Victoria, however, my peers thought this to be a silly term, one with which they were not acquainted. I asked around the workplace a few years ago, and the only other person who grew up using the term was from the SA Riverland.

Contributor's comments: I grew up in Brisbane in the 1980s and used many bubblers. Apparently it is also used in Wisconsin in the USA, but few other places in the US.

Contributor's comments: In the schools and parks of Dubbo they're bubblers.

Contributor's comments: We used the bubblers at school in Merriwa growing up. Interestingly, one of the rainwater bubblers (which shared its plumbing with the others) was known to produce "frog water" and was avoided like the plague.

drinking fountain

noun a small fountain which ejects a jet of water into the drinker's mouth. Compare bubbler, bubble tap, drinking tap, drink tap, fountain, water fountain.

Contributor's comments: This term was in use when I was a child in primary school in Queensland however when my mother returned to teaching in the 1960's she used the term bubbler.

Contributor's comments: In NW Tasmania in the 1960s, we drank from drinking fountains, and I had never heard of a bubbler until I moved to Canberra in the 1970s.

Contributor's comments: [Perth informant] 'Drinking Fountain' is still widely used, Australia wide as far as I can tell.

drinking tap

noun a small fountain which ejects a jet of water into the drinker's mouth. Compare bubbler, bubble tap, drinking fountain, drink tap, fountain, water fountain.

Contributor's comments: More often plural from their arrangement in school yards. eg. "I'm gonna have a drink from the drinking taps." or, "Meet you near the drinking taps."

Contributor's comments: I grew up in Melbourne and was used to the terms "drinking taps" or simply "the taps", particularly in school contexts.

drink tap

a drinking fountain: Can I go get a drink from the drink tap? Compare bubbler, bubble tap, drinking fountain, drinking tap, fountain, water fountain.

fountain

noun a small fountain which ejects a jet of water into the drinker's mouth. Compare bubbler, bubble tap, drinking fountain, drinking tap, drink tap, water fountain.

water fountain

noun a small fountain which ejects a jet of water into the drinker's mouth. Compare bubbler, bubble tap, drinking fountain, drinking tap, drink tap, fountain.Contributor's comments: water cooler has probably replaced bubbler - as most school and office water fountains are now from a "water cooler" type fountain.

Contributor's comments: I've kids at both primary and secondary school. In both cases they talk about the 'bubblers', and the school has had fundraisers for bubblers near the oval.

Contributor's comments: Throughout primary/high school in Perth we commonly referred to these as "drinking fountains".